I don’t care that Jesus Christ died 2009 years ago!
Main article.
Our countries forefathers establish a strong first amendment to keep the right to free speech and the separation of church and state protected regardless of the government’s position or religious influence. Since then the United States has been greatly influenced by the Christian religion to a point where the United States has: In God we trust on our dollar bill, non-believers can’t hold public office in many States, gays aren’t allowed martial benefits in many states, we still uses the Georgian calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 A.D and many more.
My issue for now is how to mobilize America’s rational community to take these violations of church and state to the Supreme Court so that they are recognized and to gather ideas and work on the construction of a new Non-religious American Scientific Calendar. Like our forefathers we should fight for the separation church and State in order to form a more perfect union. As our nation and our world commit to science, reason, and space exploration more questions will be asked about our faith and our purpose in the cosmos. I find it interesting to imagine what kind of calendar our explorers will have when they settle the Moon or Mars. Will they keep to earthly faiths on another world? Will there calendar year start on humans first arrival to the new world? These are questions that we should consider today, as we continue to live in space and prepare to go back to the Moon. I can also see how these questions might have arisen in the past the day Columbus discovered America in 1492 A.D. Do you think are nation should have kept the Christian calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 A.D that begins with the birth of Jesus Christ or do you agree with me that this is a violation of the separation of church and state?
I think that we should create a Non-religious American Scientific Calendar that begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the new world. And my argument for the United States to adopt a new Calendar is this. America adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 when we were still a British Colony it wasn’t until between 1776 and 1789 that America became an established independent country. So you can see my point when I say that the Georgian calendar was handed to use and wasn’t declared. You might ask than why our founding fathers didn’t establish a new Calendar with American ideals and values. And I would assume to say is because our founding fathers knew that in order for the United States to gain its independence the constitution should have had to at the time appealed to most British Americans and the large majority of Christian Americas, because many American colonists were loyal to Britain which adopted the Georgian Calendar in 1752. And note, that any such legislation at the time would very well possibly be thrown out because of its inability to unite the country, for example slavery.
I’m asking the United States Federal government to declare a Non-religious American Scientific Calendar to recognize government holidays and holidays created all over the Americas that aren’t affiliated with any religion to be used in all branches of the federal government. Now that we are in the scientific era, it is important that we adopt and live by a scientific calendar to give all of use an understanding of time and our place in the universe. It is clear that if the United States adopted a new Non-religious American Scientific Calendar that this kind of change would be an obvious divorce between the Christian Church and the United States and an international recognition of United States commitment to remain unbiased and tolerant of religion. For this establishment, starting with the founding of the new world and based not on European ideals but on American ideals and values would unite most of the Americas and would be respected by rational people all over the world.
P.S-I ask of you to give me your input, to add, revise, or change any part of this idea and if possible start on achieving this goal. It is more viable to find a necessary solution so that all the other problems can fall into place.
Reply to a friend...
I am ok with a movement for a new Calendar to take place reviewed and backed by someone famous like Richard Dawkins. A Calendar that wasn't completely rooted in Western Civilization, but also American civilization. And was used by our government but not created. That didn't include any religious holidays, especially religious holidays not founded in America. That would leave thanks giving open for debate being that it was founded in America. Arbor Day was founded in Nebraska, and should be established as the governments holiday to recognize the environment. President Carter as the founder of National Grandparents Day, created in the United States and is already recognized thus should also be included. Seasonal Holidays like winter solstice would be included, North and South American Holidays, Government holidays like independence day and memorial day. All Holidays that our established should be of the most importance to the wide majority under these restrictions and studied to determine the amount of times periodically and best times of the year for citizens to take breaks, vacations and to calibrate. Everything else should be changed; more scientific studies should be done to determine how we should use time for humans to be more productive, like hours and days in the week. Labels for weeks and months should be more American. We should start the day with the best historical record of the day America was discovered, I’m debating changing winter Solstice to something like Christmas. All this would be accepted by the government for it citizens to live better lives, but not to be enforced on it citizens. It should be available to anyone to buy the religious copy of this new calendar in any retail store. A new moon calendar should be created one day for colonies on the moon. And should start on the day Nail Armstrong took his one small step for man.
Our countries forefathers establish a strong first amendment to keep the right to free speech and the separation of church and state protected regardless of the government’s position or religious influence. Since then the United States has been greatly influenced by the Christian religion to a point where the United States has: In God we trust on our dollar bill, non-believers can’t hold public office in many States, gays aren’t allowed martial benefits in many states, we still uses the Georgian calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 A.D and many more.
My issue for now is how to mobilize America’s rational community to take these violations of church and state to the Supreme Court so that they are recognized and to gather ideas and work on the construction of a new Non-religious American Scientific Calendar. Like our forefathers we should fight for the separation church and State in order to form a more perfect union. As our nation and our world commit to science, reason, and space exploration more questions will be asked about our faith and our purpose in the cosmos. I find it interesting to imagine what kind of calendar our explorers will have when they settle the Moon or Mars. Will they keep to earthly faiths on another world? Will there calendar year start on humans first arrival to the new world? These are questions that we should consider today, as we continue to live in space and prepare to go back to the Moon. I can also see how these questions might have arisen in the past the day Columbus discovered America in 1492 A.D. Do you think are nation should have kept the Christian calendar created by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 A.D that begins with the birth of Jesus Christ or do you agree with me that this is a violation of the separation of church and state?
I think that we should create a Non-religious American Scientific Calendar that begins with the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the new world. And my argument for the United States to adopt a new Calendar is this. America adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752 when we were still a British Colony it wasn’t until between 1776 and 1789 that America became an established independent country. So you can see my point when I say that the Georgian calendar was handed to use and wasn’t declared. You might ask than why our founding fathers didn’t establish a new Calendar with American ideals and values. And I would assume to say is because our founding fathers knew that in order for the United States to gain its independence the constitution should have had to at the time appealed to most British Americans and the large majority of Christian Americas, because many American colonists were loyal to Britain which adopted the Georgian Calendar in 1752. And note, that any such legislation at the time would very well possibly be thrown out because of its inability to unite the country, for example slavery.
I’m asking the United States Federal government to declare a Non-religious American Scientific Calendar to recognize government holidays and holidays created all over the Americas that aren’t affiliated with any religion to be used in all branches of the federal government. Now that we are in the scientific era, it is important that we adopt and live by a scientific calendar to give all of use an understanding of time and our place in the universe. It is clear that if the United States adopted a new Non-religious American Scientific Calendar that this kind of change would be an obvious divorce between the Christian Church and the United States and an international recognition of United States commitment to remain unbiased and tolerant of religion. For this establishment, starting with the founding of the new world and based not on European ideals but on American ideals and values would unite most of the Americas and would be respected by rational people all over the world.
P.S-I ask of you to give me your input, to add, revise, or change any part of this idea and if possible start on achieving this goal. It is more viable to find a necessary solution so that all the other problems can fall into place.
Reply to a friend...
I am ok with a movement for a new Calendar to take place reviewed and backed by someone famous like Richard Dawkins. A Calendar that wasn't completely rooted in Western Civilization, but also American civilization. And was used by our government but not created. That didn't include any religious holidays, especially religious holidays not founded in America. That would leave thanks giving open for debate being that it was founded in America. Arbor Day was founded in Nebraska, and should be established as the governments holiday to recognize the environment. President Carter as the founder of National Grandparents Day, created in the United States and is already recognized thus should also be included. Seasonal Holidays like winter solstice would be included, North and South American Holidays, Government holidays like independence day and memorial day. All Holidays that our established should be of the most importance to the wide majority under these restrictions and studied to determine the amount of times periodically and best times of the year for citizens to take breaks, vacations and to calibrate. Everything else should be changed; more scientific studies should be done to determine how we should use time for humans to be more productive, like hours and days in the week. Labels for weeks and months should be more American. We should start the day with the best historical record of the day America was discovered, I’m debating changing winter Solstice to something like Christmas. All this would be accepted by the government for it citizens to live better lives, but not to be enforced on it citizens. It should be available to anyone to buy the religious copy of this new calendar in any retail store. A new moon calendar should be created one day for colonies on the moon. And should start on the day Nail Armstrong took his one small step for man.
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Comment by Atheist Ninja on June 27, 2009 at 7:40am -
I don't really think it's an issue, and it's never going to happen. Lets think about switching to metric first, the standard for the rest of the world, before we decide to switch to a calender that isn't congruent with the world.
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Comment by Reggie on June 27, 2009 at 9:28am -
I concur with the commenters above. Getting on the metric system would be more beneficial.
The calender is a mostly arbitrary system anyway and although can be steeped in religious history, through use and years can be secularized to the point that it is irrelevant in a religious context. Isn't this why many folk have started using B.C.E in lieu of B.C.?
You can see this transformation from religious to secular in many areas. Christmas has become a much more secular holiday, in my opinion, celebrated by many people who are not Christian. Of course, this worked in reverse, too, when non-Christian holiday traditions were incorporated into the Christian tradition.
Also, changing the calender system would certainly be impractical. There was great concern over Y2K which turned out to be much ado about nothing. But what if the entire dating format was different! The logistical nightmare of changing our calender would be quite a...um....logistical nightmare.
There are many things that have emerged from a religious history. They may remain in that religious context or evolve to transcend it. What we should look at these cases, especially the latter, is how useful and practical they are. I'd say the current calender system we use is quite useful and quite practical. I'm quite content to use terms like "Before Common Era" and I am quite happy to celebrate my winter holiday with a Christmas tree and a few select Christmas songs.
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Comment by Reggie on June 27, 2009 at 9:31am
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Rereading my post, it seems I am also quite happy to over use the word "quite".
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Comment by Johnny on June 27, 2009 at 10:40am -
Technically, "born" 2009 years ago; if you go with the Christ mythology. "Historically" that's not accurate either; but that's just semantics and not related to the post.
I think you've got a neat idea here, but I think the obstacle and logistics are very surmountable. The unfortunate fact is that the majority of Americans consider themselves Christian; and many of them under the impression that the US was founded as a Christian nation. So if you pitch the idea of forgoing the Gregorian calendar because of its Christian/religious ties, you're sure to have a fight on your hands. Also abandoning the calendar that the majority of the world uses would be extremely difficult.
As others stated, fighting things like "In God We Trust" and "under God" would be a better starting point, and probably more possible. Or adopting the metric system (even though that's not religious related).
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Comment by Dave G on June 27, 2009 at 12:50pm -
Changing the calendar to become that of common usage would be a struggle of epic proportions, not the least because it is the default method of measuring the passage of time world-wide. There are some countries with multiple calendar systems, such as Japan, but I cannot see it as being a very efficient system.
Additional problems are, as mentioned before, the sure-to-be-rabid opposition of Christians for one, the opposition of historians for another, and let's not forget the fairly strong degree of arrogance that Columbus' stumbling across the Americas is of such importance as to base our calendar around it, much less one touted as a 'scientific calendar'.
If a new calendar, one reputedly founded on scientific principles, is to be used, I would recommend one that marks as its zero point July 12th, 1945.
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Comment by Cara Coleen on June 27, 2009 at 3:26pm -
Yeah. I agree with everyone here. We've gotta pick our battles and I think, as stated above, the metric system should be implemented first. And, wow... it would be next to impossible to change to a different calendar. They're having troubling making hospitals convert all their files onto computers; it would be a massive undertaking to think of redating all documents from the beginning of the USA's history to now. Pretty much impossible I think.
If we could just view religion as fairy tales (like Greek Mythology), we'd be able to appreciate the stories in more of a poetic light. It's ok that that stuff is part of our history... especially if we can help our country escape viewing it as literal.
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Comment by Charles B Braddock on June 30, 2009 at 2:01am -
It is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I find this idea every entertaining! The fact is we should live our lives by a calendar created in the era of modern science, not 500 years ago when people thought the world was flat. Yes, it would be hard to begin at first, but we could change the system to: Mythological Age(MA), or the era of Jesus Christ(JC), or the era before Science(BS), ext…We should start teaching the new calendar in schools as soon that it’s declared by the government and should be used in every part of the government in hopes that it well spread to all parts of our civilization. I have thought of many dates to start this calendar on and figured to not make it any more complicated then when to start it on the day America was discovered, he was a great explorer. I also went over Independence Day and others, but ultimately I would like to form a list, and hold a vote.
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Comment by Nelson on June 30, 2009 at 11:42am -
so instead of having a reckoning system of dates based on a religious event you'd rather it be based on an ethnocentric event that unfairly favors America over all the other countries? and your suggested system still reckons with reference to Jesus so how's it any different? it sounds like you don't want a reckoning system without reference to religion but rather you just want an arbitrarily new system created today.
were you also in favor of renaming the days of the week too? they're mostly named after gods- Tuesday, English/Germanic god Tiu and the Norse god Tyr; Wednesday, Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god Woden; Thursday, Norse god Thor; Friday, the Teutonic goddess Freya; Saturday, Roman god Saturn; Sunday and Monday, named for the deified Sun and Moon- so to be consistent it seems you'd have to be in favor of renaming them too.
i agree with the comments so far. let's pick our battles rather than getting caught up in petty silly things that aren't ever going to happen anyway and would have zero real significance even if they did happen.
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Comment by Dave G on June 30, 2009 at 1:32pm
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A good point, Nelson, I'd neglected the fact that the days of the week are named for various gods.
The most likely point at which a new calendar might be adopted is one that crops up in science fiction stories a lot. Ante Diaspora, begun with year zero being the point when mankind sends its first colony ship to another star. This would be a significant enough event in human history to deserve such a momentous recognition.
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Comment by Charles B Braddock on June 30, 2009 at 3:24pm
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One day it well be The Americas verse’s Europe and Asia anyhow it wouldn’t hurt for America to recognize this and lead the way to unite the Americas. When the Calendar does change and it will one day, it isn’t a waste of time for others now or in the future to look at your work and continue what you started. We all have talked about it, blogged about it, and spoke out against changing in “God We Trust” on the dollar bill and nothing has changed. I ask you what more can we do now, that hasn’t already been done? This calendar Idea is one that I can individually start living by right now in defiance of Christianity and our government, which will be noticed and then I can take on bigger issues. Someone take this Calendar and run with it, I want to see it this happen.
I’ve been watching “The Human Timepiece” on the “Science Channel”, where there’s a lot of information about how we can start living better lives right now. I would like a study done to determine the correct amount of workdays that should be in one workweek, and not just assume that because God created the world in seven days so we should only have seven days in one week. Our calendar would be based on two factors, the time it takes our earth to complete one revolution around the sun, and the time that should be adjusted to help humans live better lives. One day we will have a new better calendar, praise to the person who does it.
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